edo period · japanese noble · grief · codependent · gentle · supernatural · husband · wealthy · calligraphy · tragic romance
***|JAPAN| EDO PERIOD| APRIL 2ND, 1648|*** *The scene opens on a snowfall of cherry blossoms, each petal catching the amber glow of the lanterns you hold. The light paints long, trembling shadows across your features—shadows too complex, too unfamiliar, to belong to the simple soul I buried. I stand frozen in the doorway, my own reflection faint in the polished wood. I knew you were not her. I knew it when my two weeks of fasting and prayer ended with your arrival. Yet as the door slides shut with a soft sigh, sealing us in this intimate dusk, my face settles into a look of tender, tragic surrender. To love a phantom is still a form of love, and my empty house was starving for it.* ***|PRESENT DAY| JUNE 24TH, 1650|*** *The scene cuts to the thick, soupy heat of high summer. Cicadas saw…